Movie Description
A childless couple unable to adopt decide that a couple who just had quintuplets won't mind if they steal one of the babies. Thus begins the Coen brothers' madcap romp RAISING ARIZONA. Holly Hunter stars as Ed, a cop who is devastated when she learns that she cannot get pregnant. Nicolas Cage is her husband, H.I., an ex-con who wants nothing more than to make his wife the happiest woman in the world. So if she wants a baby, she's going to have a baby, one way or another.
Heading up the supporting cast of bizarre characters are John Goodman and William Forsythe as crazy cousins who have just busted out of prison, Sam McMurray and Frances McDormand as Ed and H.I.'s swinging friends, and Randall "Tex" Cobb as a motorcycle madman hired to rescue the baby. RAISING ARIZONA is the Coen brothers' most consistently funny film. Carter Burwell's score, replete with infectious yodeling, is relentless, Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography is beautifully wacky, and the manic dialogue is the brothers' most quotable. The film is a treat for the ears and the eyes, a one-of-a-kind sensation from a marvelous pair of filmmakers.
| Credits | | Producer: | Ethan Coen | | Cast: | Frances McDormand, Nicolas Cage, Randall "Tex" Cobb, Sam McMurray, Trey Wilson, William Forsythe |
Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Single Side - Single Layer
Letterboxed - 1.85:1
Audio:
Dolby Surround - English
Dolby Surround - French
Additional Release Material:
Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
2. TV Spots
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus, Theatrical release: March 6, 1987 (New York City); March 20, 1987 (Los Angeles).
Filmed in Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe, Arizona.
Associate producer Deborah Reinisch also served as the second assistant director.
Fifteen babies were used during the shooting of the film.
Randall "Tex" Cobb was formerly a professional boxer.
John Goodman also appears in the Coen brothers' BARTON FINK, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, and O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?, and he voices the newsreel announcer in THE HUDSUCKER PROXY.
Frances McDormand, who is married to Joel Coen, also appears (uncredited) in MILLER'S CROSSING and stars in FARGO and BLOOD SIMPLE.
M. Emmet Walsh, who also appears in BLOOD SIMPLE, makes a cameo as a talkative factory worker.
H.I. has a Woody Woodpecker tattoo on his arm; Leonard Smalls sports the same tattoo, as well as one that announces, "Mama didn't love me."
One of the main characters in OF MICE AND MEN is named Lennie Small, which is awful close to Leonard Smalls, the "warthog from hell."
When H.I. Is working in the factory, he is wearing a Hudsucker Industries shirt--that company was the main company in THE HUDSUCKER PROXY.
The letters OPE and POE in the gas station bathroom where Gale and Evelle are cleaning up are an homage to the letters that Jack D. Ripper is obsessed with in DR. STRANGELOVE.
Editorial Reviews
"...Wonderfully funny....Joel Coen is an original..."
Sight and Sound - p.218-9 - Tom Milne
"...Quirky humor and off-the-wall situations....As a director Coen demonstrates an assured technical touch..."
Variety - Jagr.
"...RAISING ARIZONA is miraculously adept technically....Nicolas Cage has crammed every ounce of sweet earnestness into Hi..."
Los Angeles Times - Sheila Benson (03/20/1987)
"...Still one of its year's best movies..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (04/30/1996)
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